Suspension

[GRFalco]

... a chap over the road who has a Y reg (same as mine) RSV1000 Mille told me that my front shocks are wound down too far. Apparently there is loads of thread showing. And the back spring is wound way down too.

What would this do to the ride and handlind?

[Falcopops]

It's a bit open to interpretation of what he means by wound down.

My reading of it is that he's seeing a lot of rings above the top triple clamp and that the rear spring is runnung a lot of preload.

That combination would have the bike in a head down arse up stance and make it steer very quickly, prone to tank slappers and probably a bit skittish at the back end.

[xrphil]

I think the standard is three threads showing on the front, thats where mines at.
I am tempted to drop it a bit more as I think there very stable and a little slow on the front.
the rear I believe can be wound down to a max of 40mm of thread showing.

[GRFalco]

I took some pictures for you gurus!

[xrphil]

looks OK to me, standard on top nut is 5 notchs, thats where yours is. then i think three on main fork, same as yours.
thread above locking nuts should be between 38-44mm, yours seems to be there looking at the ruler, be worth checking as it looked more without it.

[Falcopops]

I think XR was right in his 1st post 3 rings as std, but 5 isn't a bad thing so long as you're happy with it. HisNibs swears by it in fact.

The back tooks a bit more screwed down than std, but difficult to tell.

Best thing to do for the rear is to try setting the sag to see if it's in the 30mm range. If it's too little back off the preload, too much wind some more on.

[Falco9]

... a chap over the road who has a Y reg (same as mine) RSV1000 Mille told me that my front shocks are wound down too far. Apparently there is loads of thread showing. And the back spring is wound way down too.

What would this do to the ride and handlind?

The question is "are you unhappy with the handling?", because as commented each bike is set up to each riders personal preference.

If your happy and bike feels fine, leave it alone

The "screw down" on the shock is all about setting preload and you may well have to use that much to get your static sag right, the same goes for the preload on the forks (the inner screw adjustment) dropping the forks through the yokes makes the steering quicker (by reducing trail) but can make the bike more unstable over the bumpy bits

Personally with 5 rings showing through the yokes I'd be using a steering damper, but it all depends upon your style of riding and the roads you use?

Set your statc sag and go from there would be my advice

F9